The invention disclosed herein pertains to a support for supporting in resilient fashion luminescent gas filled tubing such as tubing used in neon signs. Neon is used herein as the generic term for mercury vapor and other light emitting inert gases such as argon and krypton.
Neon signs customarily comprise frames or panels on which the configured gas filled glass tubing is supported by means of standoffs or insulating supports. These supports are designed to hold the neon tubing in a fixed position and also to act as shock absorbers, which function to allow the neon filled glass tubing to flex a little, rather than fracture when the sign is subjected to a distorting or a vibrational force.
An ideal neon tube support is one that can be mass produced inexpensively, requires minimal assembly effort, is easy to use in practical application, is corrosion-resistant and produces no corona discharge in the presence of a high voltage electric field. Prior patents demonstrate the extensive effort that has been expended in trying to achieve these objectives.
Reducing production cost is especially important, since any substantial neon sign manufacturer may use millions of the supports in a year, so it is evident that a one-penny-per-unit cost reduction can amount to huge savings.